F1: Leclerc Grabs Pole For The Sprint Race At Baku Despite A Late Crash

Charles Leclerc grabbed yet another pole position at Baku, albeit this time in a different scenario. The Monegasque secured pole positions for the 2021 & 2022 Azerbaijan Grands Prix, and made it a hat-trick of pole positions yesterday in qualifying. He made it 4 in a row at Baku by also grabbing the Sprint race Pole position in the new ‘Sprint Shootout’, which made its debut today.

The pole position wasn’t without drama though, as Leclerc crashed out on his final run in SQ3, damaging his front wing. However, with only 1 new set of soft tyres allowed for the session, everyone was on a used set given that they had already put in one lap each at the start of the session, and the old tyres meant that Perez or Verstappen couldn’t improve on their positions to try and snatch the pole position away from Leclerc. The crash affected Carlos Sainz’s lap, as he was improving on his ultimate effort but had to abort due to yellow flags.

Red Bull tried to mount a challenge for pole positions, but in the end the two drivers were just not a match for Leclerc. Sergio Perez had to settle for P2, ahead of his two-time world champion teammate Max Verstappen in P3. After having a poor qualifying yesterday where Russel only managed P11, the Brit improved on Saturday lining his car on fourth on the grid for the sprint race. Sainz, after his aborted last lap, ended up P5.

Alex Albon made a brilliant effort to get his Williams in SQ3, and finished 7th behind Lewis Hamilton. His Williams teammate Logan Sargeant however suffered from a crash in SQ1, and had to retire from Sprint Shootout. Sergeant until that point had already managed to be in top 15, so he ended up getting promoted to SQ2, but with no car left to drive he ended up in P15. Aston Martin suffered DRS issues throughout the sprint qualifying, and their drivers Alonso & Stroll could only manage P8 & P9 respectively. Norris put his McLaren in SQ3 after having reached Q3 yesterday as well, but with no sets of new soft tyres left, he couldn’t take part in SQ3 and had to settle for P10.